Key takeaways:
- Vice President of Vident, a shareholder firm of Bithumb, Park Mo, committed suicide on December 30 by jumping from his house in the early hours of this morning.
- Park was being looked into for allegations of stock price manipulation and embezzlement before his passing.
The vice president of Vidente Co. (surname Park) was discovered dead in front of his residence in southern Seoul, as per local South Korean news outlets.
The company is Bithumb Holdings Co.’s largest stakeholder, and Bithumb Holdings Co. runs the Bithumb cryptocurrency exchange.
According to the article, Park worked as the accountant for Kang Jong-hyun, who was Park’s brother. Jong-hyun currently serves as the Chairman of Bithumb and the Vice President of Bident. The largest shareholder in Bithumb, with a holding of around 34.22% of the bitcoin exchange, is Bident, a NASDAQ-listed business.
Park was being looked into for allegations of stock price manipulation and embezzlement before his passing. When he was the Vice President of Vidente, Park allegedly managed to account for Kang Ji-Yeon and her brother Kang Jong-Hyun. Ji-Yeon is the CEO of Inbiogen, the kiosk supplier that owns the majority of Vidente.
According to sources, some people believe that Park may have chosen suicide since the Kang siblings, who unexpectedly came to light, have placed all of the blame for the theft of public money and the manipulation of stock prices on him.
The Kangs are accused of manipulating stock prices, creating convertible bonds, and stealing money from loaned companies to create slush funds in order to obtain unlawful benefits.
South Korean authorities threatened to seize the Bithumb affiliates Vidente, Inbiogen, and Bucket Studio in October.
Additionally, a Bithumb subsidiary officer was put on trial on November 16 for allegedly deleting and concealing evidence. Before the search and seizure, the defendant was accused of hiding and erasing investment-related papers.
Additionally, the prosecution’s case against Park will probably be dropped after Park passes away.
In October, Binbits stated that Lee Jung-hoon, the former chairman of Bithumb, was the subject of a criminal inquiry over charges of fraud.
According to rumors, Jung-hoon was accused of scamming Kim Byung-gun, the chairman of BK Group, a cosmetic surgery business. In a takeover agreement for the bitcoin exchange, the head of BK Group claimed that Jung-hoon scammed him of $70 million.
